I am a sucker for Tim Ferriss’s Muse writeups. I’ll share more of them when I get a chance, but today I wanted to take one sentence from an interview from someone who is following his system to create his own business, and income.
Christopher Odell started his “muse,” which is a “low-maintenance business that generates significant income,” based on two of his passions. He needed to find a company to manufacture the product, and he went to a site called Alibaba to look for manufacturers. In describing that processes he says:
“We reached out to several companies, judged them by how good their responses were, then chose a few to make our first prototype.”
I’ve done something similar, using a site called elance, to find service providers. Like Christopher, I sent out my specs and waited to see how good their responses were. Those with canned, impersonal responses were scratched off the list. Those who had good/awesome responses made it to my short list, and then other judging criteria entered.
I thought I was somewhat petty, putting so much value in their initial responses, but I’m human. And that first impression carried a lot of weight in my decision-making process.
Did I miss out on amazing people? I’m sure I did.
But that was one of my limitations.
How good are your responses?
Even though you are the most amazing person in the room, or have the most amazing resume people will ever see, are your responses keeping you out of that next round?
Work on your responses. Whether they are email responses, networking 30 second statements, interview responses, … whatever it is, be more conscience of how you communicate, and what your first impression is.
Why?
Because you are always being judged… always.
So make a great first (and second, third, etc.) impression, and stop keeping yourself off the short list!
When networking in person, people judge you in the first 15 seconds. I am starting a new business and I KNOW I am fashion handicapped therefore, I hired a image consultant. She did my colors and I now know I am an “Autumn”. She threw away half of my clothes, which made my wife of nearly 30 years VERY happy. We selected new shirts and slacks together. I now get complements on my appearance!!
First impressions and responses are imperative!!
Too many seem lazy- not making more custom responses to stand out.
To qoute a grandfather, “never show a man a picture of a horse unless the PICTURE is BETTER than the horse!”
Our brand image, response, attitude, resume, first impressions, etc. Is The HORSE!
I authored a book and used elance to find a proof reader. I used the same criteria. It taught me a little about myself. I was guilty of using canned responses for fear of being too far out of the mainstream. I’ve decided that if my target company only wants mainstream, how badly do I want to work for them?
Lew Sauder, Author, Consulting 101: 101 Tips For Success in Consulting (www.Consulting101Book.com)